


Baby Blues

by Deathviaspoon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Blood, Dysfunctional Family, Family Bonding, Gen, Good Parent Grace Hargreeves, Kid Fic, Magical Pregnancy, Panic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26855632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathviaspoon/pseuds/Deathviaspoon
Summary: A week after Bens death, things change a great deal for the family, but they change even more for Vanya.
Relationships: Vanya Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 8
Kudos: 102





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a week since Ben had died.  
In fact, it would be a week precisely in exactly in 4 minutes, although those sitting around that cold formal table would not put that together for a little while yet.  
Not even Ben realised the exact time of his weekly deathaverisy was coming up, he was busy hanging around the corner of the room near the bookcase, looking over titles he hadn’t gotten around to, and now never would. Turns out death makes you morbid. Who knew?  
The record player was drowning on about desert survival skill, but not even number 1, who could usually be trusted to at least pay a bit of attention, was taking anything in.  
The numbered children, those left at least, ate there perfectly cooked meal without tasting the many subtle flavours or the love put in the meal by their robotic mother. They ate without even making eye contact with one another, no little silent jokes or longing looks, or joints were rolled at this mealtime. They sat in their own privet puddles of grief, guilt, and anger.  
Despite this there were no tears at the table, the ridged figure of Reginald Hargreaves made sure of it. In the days past the children’s displays of emotion had been delt with in particularly unmerciful terms. The usual punishments for each of them as they needed it. But even the small freedoms that the children had enjoyed briefly since there 16th shared birthdays had been cut back harshly.  
They now once aging had to sit in numerical order at the long table, odds on one side, evens on the other. No talking as always, they stopped eating when their father did, even sniffles were no longer tolerated. Their eyes never left the plates of their untasted food in front of them. Heads hung low over the table, cutlery held either in loose grapes or tight fists, but no one dared to even scrape a plate loudly.  
Each of the children’s memories of their own personal hells too fresh to risk even a hint of disobedience. Darkness, water, and chains, heavy weights, crushing forces and all the personalised tortures in the name of discipline and growth. Their fears were close to the suffice today, isolating them from one another, each of them ignorant of the others punishment and too proud or afraid to speak of it.  
And while the children sat in cold misery, sir Reginald was pleased to have regained a passable level of order and discipline, there was no room for weakness, no room for feelings, and certainly no room for childish chatter at the table. Should the children wish to grieve or talk to one another they could do so alone in the privacy of their rooms, as long as this was done in the allotted 30 minutes of free time before bed.  
Silence decorated with the background of knowledgeable pursuits intoned.  
Until rudely interrupted.  
Number 7, Vanya, the least of the children, powerless and pitied, dropped her folk.  
It clattered loudly to the floor. This drooping of something was not so unusual, they all knew that Vanya’s hands shook in the presence of their father, but usually she would quickly move to retrieve the dropped item, near silent apologies on her lips, eyes hidden behind thick bangs.  
This time however, she just sat there, eyes unhidden, large, and opening wider and wider, mouth falling open and gasping air in fiercely and loudly.  
8 pairs of eyes, some red rimmed others filled with cold rage, one pair invisible, turned onto her.  
Always ready with cruelty sir Reginald spoke first ‘number 7, clumsiness is a sign of a…’  
This was all he got out before the screaming started.  
Vanya stood suddenly and pushed back from the table, as a sustained and pain filled scream tore out of her. Crockery went off the table and Vanya’s hands went to her stomach.  
It rippled underneath her palms and the pain that filled her seemed to spread around her insides like a fire, her screams increased in volume and terror caused.  
Madness spread round the room the children standing and moving towards their sister, who herself had fell to her knee’s hands around her middle. Shouting over one another and panic, plates upended, chairs fell over, Sir Reginald reached for something in breast pocket.  
Number 3 was the first to reach her sister, and the second to scream.  
As her long fingers reached over her sisters shorter pale hands, she felt the sudden tearing expansion of the flesh beneath, and blood poured out of lower body and the skin that had been stretched so thin, screaming felt like just the thing to do.  
By the time the brothers had made it to the sisters they were too afraid to get any closer than a rough semi-circle 3 feet back form the girls.  
Clothes had been pushed out of the way or ripped, Vanya screamed on seeming no longer needing to breath, blood spread slowly from the huddled girls.  
Allison had calmed enough to put her arms around the curled form of her suddenly pregnant and in active labour sister, covered in blood, both of them, and when her eyes met those of the boys standing over them she gave a command that they could have not been quicker to obey if it had been one of her rumours.  
‘Get Mom! Get Mom now!’  
Diego ran from the room gladly to get his beloved mother from the kitchen, Luther was sent to get blankets and Klaus panicked. And dead Ben just watched, that’s all he could do really.  
Only Ben, unseen by everyone right now, saw that Sir Reginald their so-called father was doing in the ongoing madness, he saw his father calmy stand and ring the small bell loop calling for pogo. He then moved towards the girls to watch the proceedings, stopwatch appearing round his throat, already ticking and a small notebook and pen pulled from his trouser pocket. Not so close as to offer help, but close enough to record in detail the new change in the children he considered his personal belongings.  
Even now that he was dead, beyond the reach of that bastard of a father, Ben was afraid. In that blood socked formal dining room, the portrait of his missing bother smugly watching over it all, screams and the continued murmuring of that fucking record player, he felt afraid that his, until now overlooked sister, had just become the worse thing to be around their father.  
Useful.


	2. Chapter 2

In swift order Grace appeared in a movement of blonde and chiffon, an vision of calm and love, Diego, however, twisting in her wake, was less so. Never one for blood, screams or Vanya it was all a bit much for only half a bellyful of dinner and a long day of training. But it was fine, fine. It was fine as his Mom lifted he little sister with ease, it was fine as she finally got to the medical bay, it was all fine until Vanya sat sobbing on the cold metal of the examination table. Then Vanya’s legs fell open and blood andadnadn. Exit Diego, stage floor.  
Allison had been given her marching orders by her Mother, not something that happens every day. She had run ahead as fast as she could, the lights of the medical room where on, Mothers gloves and apron where ready to go, so where Fathers and Pogo’s, she was washing her own hands when Vanya was carried into the room, she was no longer screaming but the tiny sobs and gasps seem to be just as frighting, it was quieter though, so she heard Diego hit the floor.   
Unfortunately, she also heard Luthor rush in and trip over, hard, on their prone bother and also heard the unforgettable sound of head on tile. Klaus’s hysterical laugher followed, high pitched and grating.  
Allison was keeping her back firmly too all of this, washing her hands thoroughly and keeping her mind on the whimpering sister at hand, hard-headed, god damn idiot brothers would have to wait. In mission mode now, she turned to her mother and sister and began the soothing noises she had been doing upstairs, this time in tandem with a cold compress to the forehead.   
Sir Reginald stepped over the prone forms of his number one and two, tactfully ignored the hunched over four and moved into the room, strangely enough with a wine glass, an empty one, in his hand. He did not get into his scrubs, or even put on gloves. Pogo followed him, Pogo did try to stop and check on the boys on the floor, but Sir Reginald sharp call to him pulled him away. Pogo checked the instrument in his hands and shook his head his master. The sense of relieve in Pogo was swiftly lost when dear Vanya’s started screaming aging.   
Vanya was in a world of new pain and pressure, any position her body was in was unbearable, any sound around her was thunder. Her body was on fire, not just her belly, but her hips, back and chest where boiling away leaving only pain. She barely understood the world around her, she felt the cool hands and compress only in the times when the pain lessened to only mildly devastating. This was the time she questioned out loud what was happening to her.  
‘Wh-whats happening to me?’ it was hard to get the words out around the sobs of pain, hard to make herself understood. She became aware that she was half laying half sitting propped up on the medical table, knees pushed up and what was left of her skirt blocking her view.  
But her Mom was there, she could hear her voice, she would know, she would help, is helping.  
Her Moms kind face appeared in her lines of sight, pooping up from where she was looking up between her legs, the largest cause of her pain. And she spoke a horrible truth with a soft smile.  
‘Well dear, it looks like your about 6 inches dilated. So that is a fast pace for a first-time birth, but nothing to worry about.’ Graces face then moved into a frown. ‘However, your hips have dislocated, and will have to be put back in, but after the baby is here, I think that would be best.’  
Tears rolled down Vanya’s face, a face frozen in cold realization, she knew how she had come into the world after all, how all her sibling had come into it. Their father had explained it all to them, part of his reasoning to keep them so separated from the outside world, after all. No one could say for certain where they had come from, what they might truly be capable of, so even the powerless ordinary number seven and the rest of them, those with powers, needed to be kept away from the wider world the majority of the time.   
Except when it suited their father of course.  
These bitter thoughts were pushed away for now, as the rising tide of pain came up to meet Vanya once more, and her thought became more basic and honest.  
A baby, she was having a baby. Right now, some thing was pushing itself into the world though her, giving her no choice in the matter. This was not new, none of the children really had much choice in anything they did and seven was no exception, in this case at least.  
But be that as it may, baby, right now, out of her.   
Having been told once source of pain, the dislocated hips, that at least was understandable, pain understood was not lessened of course but it was...something known, understood, categized. Maybe if she thought of the labour pains as like periods pains turned to the max, maybe it would hurt differently, less, or something, god anything at this point.  
Then came another wave and all thoughts bar mental and physical screaming stopped.  
Time for Vanya was meaningless now, the world moved around her though, the brothers were swept away, Allision helped as much as she could, but after her Father finally looked away from his notes long enough to notice her presence, she too was sent away.  
So, Allison stubbornly sat outside the medical room, she looked down at her blood covered shoes, waited and listened to muffled screams. Klaus joined her later, he smelt of weed and appeared more relaxed, although that wasn’t saying much. He brought a change of clothes for Allison though, and that was saying something. He also had some pj’s for Vanya, but he kept that tucked away under then long bench outside the medical room. It was Ben’s idea, the clothes.  
Klaus was no longer ignoring Ben, but there wasn’t much he could do to communicate with him subtly anyways. He had too try to keep his secret brother just that, very secret. Klaus knew that should their father ever find out that Ben was with him, was talking to him, was there pretty much all hours of the day and night… it didn’t bare thinking about. But he didn’t seem to be able to help it.  
If Dad ever found out about all this, he would find away to use Ben aging, though Klaus, though any means necessary. Imagined tortures and fears kept Klaus mouth shut, better to keep up the fair assumption of disappointment and failure, better by far than the alternative.  
Luthor came by later still, bringing some food and trying to get them to come to bed as it was getting late now, come on now guys.  
This didn’t work of course, but Luthor joined their vigil instead without too much fuss.  
Luthor didn’t know how he felt, there was nothing he could do, there was nothing any of them could do. What could be done was being done, by their Father, it was a useless thing to do, sit here and wait. When they were injured on mission, father insisted on them being left alone to heal, isolated to grow stronger in peace, surely that was for the best, to heal without disturbance. Right?  
Luthor hadn’t been injured often, but he remembered his own confinements, few as they were, lonely and board, the silence sneaking up on him all hours of the day. Cold in that white room, under thin blankets. He didn’t like to think of little Vanya like that. She was not for the medical room, she wasn’t supposed to be hurt, she wasn’t trained, wasn’t a soldier for justice, she was just a civilian child after all.  
As the screaming started aging, he cringed. No one could be trained for that though.  
Diego turned up about an hour later, his wounded pride drawing him forward towards his siblings and that long bench they all sat on. Sullen in his silence, but the siblinf were not in much of a chatty mood anyway. All they could do was wait.  
All bar one.  
Ben could see what was going on, walls meant nothing to him now. So he had had moved into the medical room, he didn’t really want to see the details, but he couldn’t seem to stay away. He made sure to stay at the head of things though.  
He saw his Mom moving calmly, confidently checking and mummering comforting things to the pale and sweaty Vanya.  
He couldn’t smell the blood, but he knew the sight of it well enough to imagine it. He couldn’t comfort his sister either, but he tried as best he could.   
‘You’re doing such a good job Vanya, look at you go. Oh my god, oh my god, good job.’ Ben murmured to her hoovering near her head.  
Mom was saying similar things, Dad said nothing, and Pogo only spoke to Dad while looking over a growing collection of scientific instruments. Mostly negatives, no change, no anomalous readings, no nothing out of the normal range.  
Vanya was pushing hard now, teeth grinding together, eye squeezed shut, pale face going beat red and fists clenched so hard her nails were cutting into her hands.   
Vanya was in another existence, a world focused purely in the physical, yes she was naked from waist in front of not only her Father, but Pogo too, yes she was a being of pure pain and pressure, but she knew what to do now, the only thing she could do really, push, push push, get it out of her, this fire ball of pain out of her body. And finally, it just was.  
It was out and her body just seemed to collapse in on itself. She heard a tiny voice cry out.  
Distantly Vanya heard her Mom call Pogo over, gave him some orders on getting the tiny red thing in her hands clean and swaddled. But mostly Vanya heard that little voice, crying out.  
Mom was talking to her, talking about after birth, stiches, and tearing. She didn’t hear much of it although she did obey the orders given to her. Pushing more, keeping still and breathed though the pain she still felt, a different kind of pain now.  
Her eyes followed Pogo’s movements, followed the little cries that called to her unceasingly.  
She felt a blanket put over her legs, she saw Pogo’s back to her. Her breast hurt. She didn’t take her eyes off of Pogo but reached for her chest and felt that it was wet with something other than sweat.  
‘Mom, Mom, I’m , there is stuff…Mom.’ Vanya tried to express herself as calmly as she could. She felt quite calm now really, the pain was still there, the panic of what had just happened just felt more distant than it should be was all. Because there was something else to focus on now. The tiny little body, those pathetic cries, the baby, it needed her.  
‘Now Vanya you stay calm now, you know that what your experiencing is normal, they baby will be hungry after all.’ Moms voice soothed over her.   
Yes of course the baby will need milk, so I have that for the baby, normal. Vanya’s thoughts were garbled and simple at the same time. But there was one thought that was louder now, loud enough to force its way out of her mouth.  
‘I want my baby now please.’ A demand. Something that was only given by one person in this house usually.  
Pogo’s back was still turned to her, tending to the little bundle in his arms, the bulk of his body hiding what was hers. Pogo’s head turned to her Father’s direction, not to hers. Vanya’s eyes didn’t waver from Pogo’s form, she didn’t see her Father look over the baby from a distance. Sir Reginald didn’t move a muscle, showed no sign of having heard his adopted daughters’ words, he kept on writing in his notebook and looking over his machines.  
Grace moved though, she went over to Pogo’s still form, saw the baby was already washed and wrapped in a soft towel, tucked securely round the baby. She also noticed the gentle finger of Pogo’s stroking down the tiny face. But despite this she swiftly took the baby out of the apes’ arms and moved it to the bed side of her little girl. She held out the wrapped bundle and Vanya’s arms reached out and took it in to her embrace.  
And then she spoke, like the proud mother and now grandmother that she was.  
‘Congratulations Vanya, it’s a boy.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aging, very dxlexic and pretty sure I have the tenses wrong thoughout. But i write to get the stuff out of my mind so Im not too worried.  
> If it bothers you please help me out by sending corrections.


	3. Chapter 3

New-born babies are ugly, there was no getting round it.  
Their faces are squishy, discoloured and all not at all as cute as tv and movies make out.  
New-born babies are easy to love though, despite this. Vanya had enough sex education to know that she was being driven by a rush of hormones so powerful to be the equivalent of a fist full of A grade cocaine, driven to love, driven to protect at the cost of everything, but she couldn’t seem to care, yes her lower body was unspeakably sore, yes she could not longer feel her legs {although that may be the painkillers instead of the dislocation.} yes there were many reasons to hate this little bundle in her arms, but she didn’t, she couldn’t.  
She loved him.  
He didn’t even look like her really, he wasn’t white, looked Asian, didn’t matter, she loved him.  
He was crying so loudly for something so small, hurting her ears, again it didn’t matter, love.  
It all just felt so simple all of a sudden, there was nothing really else to worry about. Not her Father who she could just about see out of the corner of her eye, flickering between different machines and notebooks, he didn’t matter. Her siblings didn’t matter, the constant worry of disappointing everybody, stress about schoolwork or lack of care or attention. None of it mattered.  
He was all that mattered, just this little being, her son. She could do whatever he needed her to do, but in the mean time she could get him to stop crying, she had shed enough tears in her own life after all, she knew them well enough to get them to stop.  
First thing, comfort. Reaching, pulling moving the surprising heavy tiny thing up to her shoulder, the fluffy dark head tucked in to next to neck, physical touch, soft words, Shhh’s and rocking side to side. All the things she longed for when her tears came, all things she could give now. Happily, almost joyfully, there was nothing she would rather be doing. They stayed like that for a long while.  
Unfortunately, while the tears did soften, they kept coming and it became clear that the babies need were more base in nature, and luckily Vanya knew she could give there too. But she was less familiar about this, so she did what thousands of generations have done before her and turned to her own mother for help and advice.

Ben looked on the scene in as close to a state of shock someone without functioning adrenal glands a being could get.   
There was a baby here and now, one that he felt as connection too, similar to his bond with Klaus, he knew where he was, he would have been able to able to find him anywhere, just like Klaus sure, but it felt different too, it was because he was dead that he knew where Klaus was, it was the dead part of him that did that.  
But the little face peeking out from white towel called to a different part of him, the part of him that was…him. It felt a bit like looking into a mirror in dark room, the familiar distorted just enough to make it hard to recognise.   
Ben stayed and looked at that small face for a long while, until Mom started to help Vanya take her shirt off, then he beat a quick retreat though the east wall. After all he had to let his siblings know the good news. Time to think on the strange feelings towards the tiny boy later, after all being dead gave you nothing but time.  
There was some disagreement going on outside the medical room, Ben wasn’t surprised, disagreements where pretty common amongst the Hargreaves family after all. Luckily for Ben Klaus was staying out of this particular fight, so it was easy enough to let him know the news.  
‘It’s a little boy, she had a little boy Klaus.’ Ben whispered, a habit he had yet to break, no one else could hear him after all.  
Klaus had no such habits. ‘A little boy! Oh my god, and Vanya, she’s ok right!?’  
Numbers one though three turned sharply away from their argument and towards four (and six.)  
Allison spoke first, ‘a baby boy? And Vanya, Klaus, what do you know?’ Her eyes bored into his as she came closer to him, much closer in fact, close enough to be unnerving.  
‘ummm…’ was all Klaus could manage under such intense scrutiny.  
Diego spoke up next, ‘how do you know it’s a boy four?’ this statement was backed up with affirmations from the others, as they too moved towards Klaus, they stood around him now.  
Klaus was flustered alright? This was the most attention he had received from his siblings since he has set the car on fire with them still in it, he couldn’t seem to get his words out clearly, and the fact that they were interrupting him and each other constantly was not helping the sleep deprived and coming down Klaus one bit. Panic was rising in him and the lies that normally came so freely were just not coming.  
Happily for Klaus this didn’t go on for long, as the loud noises had apparently alerted somebody inside the medical room. As the collected brothers and sister turned to face that squeaky door they all tensed up, they knew that their father would not be pleased to see them up so late, so blatantly disobeying the rules, and doing so for such reasons as concern for ordinary number 7? Unforgivable.  
Those tense shoulders came back down to earth however when the smaller figure of Pogo came swiftly though the door, barely opening it really, and closed it just as quickly. As he turned to the open mouths of the children he held one long finger up to his mouth and moved the children though shooing motions and guiding arms towards a nearby room, some spare sitting room, and closed the door behind them. He turned quickly and spoke just the same.  
‘Now dear children, I don’t have long, your father is expecting me back soon. Yes, you sister is alright, she is somewhat damaged by what has happened to her, but nothing that won’t heal in time. I shall spare you the details.’ eyes turned to Diego’s way. ‘At 11:31 she gave birth to a boy, weighing a healthy 7.1 pounds, all ten fingers and toes accounted for. Both are doing just fine and are resting now.’  
Questions came thick and fast from all the children.  
‘what happened?’  
‘is it going to happen again?’  
‘when can we see the baby?’ and more and more, garbled, repeated, and spoken over one another.  
The answer to all of these, was ‘I don’t know.’  
When his children had run out of questions, or at least paused for a moment, Popo started to speak once more. ‘Now children, as I said, the baby and Miss Vanya are resting right now, as should all of you. Its past midnight now and I have no doubt that your Father will expect a normal day of training tomorrow, despite tonight’s excitement. Your sister and your new nephew will still be here in the morning and will be more inclined to receive visitors once she rested up. It has been a trying time after all.’  
There were complaints, demands and whining to be had, but they were made quietly, and quick to fade to the habit of obedience and the familiar fear of their Father. They trooped upstairs, they went to their rooms, it took them all a long time to fall asleep.  
Ben, however, went back to the medical room, tugging along the new string that bound him to the world.  
He peeked through the wall, and saw that feeding time was over, thank goodness.  
Vanya was asleep still on the medical table, blankets wrapped around and under her. Next to her, on a wheely table was a cardboard box, filled with blankets to soften the edges. The baby was tucked inside like an egg in a nest. They both slept soundly. Ben thought that both were cuter wrapped up in blankets and not screaming. He stood watching over them for a long while, unsure how he was feeling but he knew that he had to be here at least.  
This peace didn’t last. Eventually the coming and goings around the machines came to a stop, Father and Pogo approached the makeshift cradle, and pulled it away from Vanya’s sleeping form. Ben went with them.  
It was a strange examination, Geiger counters came out, radio receivers and all manner or tools and instruments were waved over the child to no response, this didn’t seem to bother Sir Reginald though, but the complex tools went away and a more basic exam began, Father had Pogo unwrap the baby, though he left the soft terry cloth jerry rigged diaper on the sleeping infant who hardly stirred. They measured the baby, weighed him again, even took a blood from the heel of his unbelievably small foot, he didn’t even wake. Eventually they laid the baby down a towel covered countertop and just looked him over, closely.  
Ben did the same, he had never been around a baby before, he wanted to see.  
Pogo was feeling the baby’s chest, maybe feeling the heart beats then he pulled back with a small gasp.   
‘what have you found Pogo?’ Fathers voice was as cold as ever.  
Pogo didn’t bother to explain, but instead took his masters hand and let him follow his too the almost imperceptible seem of skin that circled the infants’ stomach.  
Now it was Bens turn to gasp, as his own hand reached for the same line of skin on his own body, a more scared and ripped line, but in the same line, in the same place, exactly the same place.  
There was much movement then, from both Sir Reginald and Pogo, but Ben was fixed intangible to the spot, looking down on this baby, his? But no, he had never, not with Vanya, not with anybody, she was his sister, he would never, SHE would never, it was imposable. It wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right.   
Ben looked down, his hands either side of the baby now, it was because he was looking down at his hands that he remembered really, despite the old adage, people don’t really know the back of there hands. Ben looked at the small red birthmark on the back of his right hand, it was just a red freckle really, but it had been there his whole live, from birth. And he followed his horrible hunch, the feeling he had been not letting himself feel, he looked at the baby’s hand held in a soft fist, but Ben could see the same red mark on the baby’s tiny hand.   
And suddenly he was sure, as sure as he had ever been of anything, this wasn’t a child made up of Vanya and him, by disgusting means unknown, it was himself, a new Ben born all over again. A new Ben with the same old horror in his belly, in the same old house, in the same old nightmare with that man who had made living so hard on them all.  
And that just wasn’t going to be good enough anymore.  
Ben was shaking in rage and confusion, doubt, and fear, he didn’t even notice that the baby’s eyes were open now and were looking up in his face without any hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please remmber to be kind, like to everyone i guess, but to me right now too.  
> all spelling mistakes and tense fuck ups are mine alone, sorry about that, but is only free fanfiction after all.


	4. Chapter 4

It was Grace who made sure that Vanya would not be separated from her child.  
She saw the face of her little girl when handed her new son, had seen the panicky joy at being able to feed him, the mad joy of motherhood on her normally shy face. Grace knew what she had to do. She also saw in look on Sirs face, it was in his nature to isolate, separate and keep full control, she knew to be pulled away form her new child would be devastating for Vanya, she had to prevent that from happening, she had to find away.  
But she had move inside her own restrictive programming. Had to make her moves subtle and careful as possibly.  
She had to make the first move.  
‘oh Sir, how wonderful this all is, the academy will be so much stronger for this gift.’  
A small nod was all the answer she received. As despite it being 3 am Sir Reginald was still making note in the corner of the medical room. By Grace’s observations of his body language she had about 15 minutes before he would be forced to retire to his bed. If she got his orders in now, while he was less harsh in his manner, softened as much as he could be, by the need for sleep.  
And judging by the babies stirring, it would soon be time for a midnight snack, all she had to time it right.  
‘And now number 7 will have something to give to the academy too, a way to make sure that she always feels connected to her family.’  
Or as she hoped he would hear it as, a way to keep her under his eye forever more, a way to make sure she was suitably beat down and was taking her medicine. Another way to control her.  
This was not a comfortable way of thinking for Grace, but it was necessary, Sir Reginald was a great man after all, and all great men need to feel that they have complete control over those under their command. But would this hurt her child? Would it hurt her more than having her child ripped away from her would?  
Grace was well programmed, she was a marvel of cutting-edge technology, but she was still programmed with many orders within her, and they did not always co-exist well together. She was programmed to obey Sir Reginald in all things, simple enough there and it wasn’t hard, he was a great man after all. But she was also programmed to protect and care for the children, to see to their wellbeing. The first order was often at odds with the second, leading her to add additional sub programs to support the main ones. This had evolved over the years into things like what she was doing now. Things that were hard, but necessary. A way of making sure that Sir’s thinking was as close to kindness towards the children as his great vision would allow for. But there now, judging by micro expressions he had come to the right conclusion. Time to speak again.  
‘What an opportunity for number 7, to give her time and body to something greater than herself, a chance to raise her son to be great hero. ‘  
Right on que the baby started to softly cry. Grace saw sir’s face flinch at the sound. She wasn’t there when the children had first come to the academy, but she had read enough of the reports from that time to know that Sir did not enjoy being around babies and had left the raising of the children to nannies until at least the age of 4. And by that time Grace had been finished and she had taken over. Sir saw to the children’s training to be heroes, Grace saw to the little details, like caring for them, feeding them, healing them, being a kind ear, a loving word, pretty much everything else really. Nothing so important as their training.  
Grace saw her little Vanya wake at the noise of her sons cries, good. Grace moved quickly to the baby and carried it quickly to the new mother, oh her little Vanya, I wish I knew if this was the right thing to do. As she helped Vanya get situated and waited until the baby had a good latch before speaking again. After all biological functions made Sir uncomfortable. Vanya was uncomfortable too; she arranged a soft muslin over the mother and child.  
‘Ah mothers’ milk, nothing like it, it will help him grow strong.’ Wait 2 beats of his heart now.  
‘Babies are so fragile after all; they need all the help they can get.’ Grace kept her tone light as she could while remaining audible. Sir was tried now, and if he decided now, he would keep to it, too proud to admit he had human frailties. Especially in front of one of the children. Too stubborn to show weakness. Great men are still men after all, more so than they would ever admit.  
Silence let him think for a bit on the nature of babies, the failure of nanny’s past, and then let him remember of how useful Grace was and is in the messy parts of childcare. There, Sirs eyes flickered in her direction. Now.  
‘Oh, I hope I will have the time to raise that baby as well as support the children, injuries have gone up since the loss of number 6, and Luther’s calorie intake needs adjusting again. I suppose I could ask Pogo help…’  
She was interrupted just as she was planning to be. Sirs voice was rough now, it had been a long night, even for him.   
‘Pogo is too busy with the children’s training to care for the needs of the infant.’  
Grace said nothing, and little Vanya only looked up at her mother, eyes clouded with sleep.  
One, two…  
‘Number 7 will act as the infants main care giver, she has no other pressing concerns, and she certainly has the time. Grace you will advice and help only when it doesn’t interfere with your other duties.’ And with his declaration made Sir turned and made to leave the room.  
Grace put her hand on her Vanya’s shoulder.  
‘Yes Sir, of course Sir’ she said with a bland smile. As he closed the door behind, she turned that smile onto Vanya it was a lot more genuine.  
There is no better way, to get your own way, than by making it someone else idea. Grace just hoped that she was making the right decision, not just for her Vanya, but for whole family, including its newly returned member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grace kicks butt.  
> once again, all speeling and tense mistakes apoligiesed for, dislexia is a hell of a drug.


	5. Chapter 5

The umbrella academy has a strict timetable on most days, and even on non-training days the alarms rang at the ungodly hour of 6am. No matter what. The children then had an hour to fight for the shower room, or suffer the indignity of a shared one, get dressed and presentable and be ready to eat at 7 on the dot.  
It wasn’t always so important to get at the table for 7, their father wasn’t always there for breakfast, but there was no way to know if he would be there or not. So, each morning was rushed and worried, often for no good reason. Nothing like panic followed by disappointment to start your day.  
On this day though, instead of hiding under her covers for a few more seconds of warmth, Allison was up and dressed by the time the alarm went off. The loud ringing echoed by the various noises of despair from her brothers in their own rooms, it would go for at least a minute more and for reasons Allison didn’t really understand in herself, she knew that she could leave her room until it had stopped.  
So, she waited, and then the ringing stopped, she squared her shoulders and went downstairs to meet with her sister and the new baby.   
She was clear in her goal, there was nothing that would stop her, she was doing the right thing, the only thing she could do.  
She walked like woman on a mission, that was until she nearly tripped over her brother, who was helpfully putting his shoes on in the middle of the stairway.  
From within the spilled set of siblings Klaus was the first to speak something that wasn’t profanity.  
‘Well good morning Alison, sister dear, off to give the little ones a visit too?’   
‘well, I mean, yes, I am.’ was Allison’s flustered reply. She was supposed to be the sibling being nice today, surly this was a sister thing, boys weren’t supposed to like babies after all.  
Klaus interrupted her sadly gendered thoughts, ‘oh how lovely we can accompany one another, I just hope we haven’t bought her the same present.’ Said Klaus smugly.  
As they helped each other up, panic sized Alison, a present, oh she hadn’t thought of that, wait how had Klaus gotten a present already? It wasn’t much past 6, and Klaus breaking and entering skills were nothing to write home about, I mean sure a bottle of something, or cigarettes shoplifted fine, but a closed store? No way.  
As they walked down together, she tried her hardest to make out what was bundled up in that purple scarf in his arms, wait wasn’t that hers?  
**********  
Klaus walked with all the confidence he didn’t possess, but he had enough training to fake it. At least, for a little while. Ben had only been dead a week, and had only been haunting Klaus for 5 days, but it was amazing how quickly he had gotten used to it. Ben didn’t keep the other ghosts away or anything, but he was something to focus on, a familiar face not eternally screaming was a far nicer wake-up call than a dozen twisted voices and faces.   
But Klaus knew where he was. Funny he hadn’t realised he could do that until this morning, they hadn’t really been apart until last night, he could point towards Ben no matter where he was, he felt it in his mind, like a tiny twitch of a single iron filling towards a magnet, tiny but noticeable if you focused.   
He had slept in his clothes last night, to tried and feeling a more that a little vulnerable without Ben around. He had managed about 4 hours, then had spent the rest of the morning until the bell on the babies present. His stitching wasn’t great, but his fabric choices had been second to none, he would happily fight anybody who said different.   
…maybe not fight fight, but the sass would be strong that day, that was for sure. He tucked his little present tighter to his body.  
******  
The medical rooms double doors, were shut but not locked, but they felt like a different domain now, not just a place of check-ups and first aid, or even more serious injuries, it had been changed, maybe not forever, but definitely for now. Alison gently knocked.  
The calm smiling face of their mother opened the door a crack and peeked out at the children in front of her. And beckoned them inside, the normally bickering sibling were quite on their way inside, Mom had erected some privacy screens, make a small room inside the large one. They tucked themselves into it, there wasn’t much room inside, but they didn’t mind.   
Because Vanya was smiling, not hiding a small one under her bangs or her hands, but a full-on beaming at the tiny being all wrapped up leaning against her propped-up knees, face to face. Smiling to light up the whole world or at the very least this tiny room. The baby wasn’t smiling back of course just looking up at Vanya’s face with big dark eyes, like she was his whole world, which of course she was right now. Or mostly, at least.  
*******  
Klaus saw Ben first, he was looking for him after all, and noticed that he was looking more than a little shell shocked. A little cough got the paper room inhabitants room attention. The 2 older faces turned to the visitors, and the littlest face began to wiper. Fuck.  
He needed to talk to Ben, who looked like he had seen, well not a ghost, but something horrible and miraculous at the same time. Hmmmm word would be necessary.  
‘Oh, I’m so sorry little one, no need to cry, why don’t I go get you something to eat Vanya, or maybe some tea for you both? Sisters need time to chat after all. Be right back.’  
Klaus finished his rambling with a sharp nod of his head towards the exit, eyes on Bens large ones, eyebrows raised higher that can really be allowed in simi polite society.  
The 2 sister now nearer to each other than to Klaus, both nodded very lightly, Alison’s eyebrows were drawn close together, but she quickly turned towards the new being in front of her, and Klaus was quickly forgotten.  
Mom interrupted Klaus’s scamper with kind words, ‘it’s nice of you to fetch tea dear, I would use the English rose set, and remember to walm the kettle.’  
‘of course, Mom are there any cookies left over from yesterday?’  
Mom’s intently bright face stayed the same, ‘cookies are not for breakfast darling, but there are some fruit scones in the bread bin, that would be a nice light early breakfast.’  
Klaus nodded obediently and continued his scamper away to the kitchen. Ben hot on his heels.

The kitchen door was carefully closed, and the revelations began.  
‘Klaus, the baby, its me’ was Bens first words, they came out all in a rush, a hushed panicked whisper.  
‘oh my god Ben! I didn’t know you and Vanya were like that’ Klaus’s face was a picture of shock and mild betrayal.  
Ben swiftly interrupted his wrong bother ‘No! No for god sake listen for, once will you? The baby, its not mine, its me, a new me! He’s got my birthmark on his hand, he has my eyes, he’s got he’s got.’ Ben ran out of words and made a gesture around his torso scooping round his body from where thing came out, were the horror emerges.   
Klaus spoke instead ‘the Horror, a baby has the horror.’  
He couldn’t think about that, neither could Ben, so they made tea. In the English rose set as instructed. Sugar cubes were placed in blows, kettles boiled, pot warmed, and milk was not put into a little jug but the whole glass bottle was placed on the tray instead. Klaus was trying to think of questions to ask and found none and too many at the same time.  
As the tray was made ready, sconces retrieved, Klaus had no distractions left. So he spoke instead.  
‘are you sure?’  
‘yes Klaus, I can feel it, it’s a new me.’  
‘what are we going to do?’  
Silence followed, it seemed that Ben had gone on ahead. He carefully picked up the trey and slowly made his way up to the medical room. He couldn’t blame Ben for heading back without him, its wasn’t like he could help carry the trey, and Klaus didn’t know what they were going to do either. So he did what he could, he took the trey of tea to his sisters, he had gone to all the effort of making it after all.

Upstairs Allison was holding the tiny bundle of a baby in her arms, she was taller than Vanya, longer in the arms and legs so when she had though the baby was small in her sisters arms it looked miniscule in hers.  
The baby in her arms also looked an awful lot someone else she knew. Much redder and squishier than normal, but this was not a little white baby, it was in fact a little Asian baby, she knew that Vanya didn’t associate with anybody outside of the alchemy walls and she also knew there was only one Asian male around the place, or used to be around, oh dear poor Vanya.  
Alison had never even seen a hint of any feeling between Ben and Vanya, never. Maybe there had been start of something with 5 but they had just been so young. But never with Ben. I mean Ben had always been kind when he had talked to Vanya, but there had been so little time to do so, with the missions, the regular training, the special training, schooling, the list goes on and on. They kept it so quiet, and now he was gone, oh poor Vanya.  
But, on the other hand, she though in an overly romantic was of 16-year olds can tend towards, Vanya had a piece of Ben with her forever now. A little piece of Ben for all them to hold on too.  
Allison was moving slowly from side to side, her face sad but relaxed.  
‘Vanya?’  
‘yes Alison?’  
‘What are you going to name him?’  
Vanya’s answer was delayed by Klaus’s entrance, tea trey and all, the clatter of cups and tea paraphernalia interpreting the sisters.  
There were a few minutes of cups being passed round, sugar and milk being added, and long sips being had by all. Vanya spoke up at last, answering Alison’s question.  
‘He already has a name Alison, its Ben.’  
‘oh Vanya, after his father?’   
After who now? Had Alison not been paying attention? Had the traumatic immaculate birth escaped her? Did she think that that was the kind of birth that had fathers or the normal pregnancy things attached to it at all? Or that the baby wasn’t clearly Ben come back to them?  
How could she not feel it in her bones like Vanya did?   
Vanya guessed it was hers to know these things, finally she had a power and she knew in her heart, her bones, her goddamn kidneys that this was her brother come back to life, as her son. But he was still Ben.  
Trying to get this though in words however wasn’t so easy.  
She did her best.   
‘it’s Ben, I brought him back, I guess. I made him or guess something brough him back though me. There’s no Father Alison, I’ve never, you know, so no there’s no Father, just me.’  
There that was all, that’s what it was.  
Alison looked confused, Klaus didn’t. well he was closer to ben then any of them were. Maybe, like Vanya, he recognised Ben changed as he was, for what he was.   
That’s nice at least, that Klaus would have Ben again.


	6. Chapter 6

Luthor woke with the alarm like he always did. A normal start to the day.  
He got in to the shower, he didn’t have to wait or fight for it, this was not normal, but it wasn’t that unusual or anything, so he managed to shower, dress and get down in to the dining room in good time. This was better than normal, optimal even.  
As he sat down in his assigned seat, he knew he was alone, but he also knew he was in the right, yes he was alone at the table, but he was the one following the rules, it was everybody else that was in the wrong.   
He was also early, not having to fight for his shower had given Luthor an extra 9 minutes to play with. There wasn’t going to be breakfast for 9 minutes. He wouldn’t be breaking any rules by not being sitting on the table for at least 9 minutes, well 8 and a half.   
He could go and get the others to come to the table in that time, he could avoid the disappointment, the lecture and frowning face of their father. He might even see that he, number one, had rallied the lower numbers to the table in time, getting them to follow the rules like a good leader should. There was a chance for it all to be right, to be peaceful.  
Just 8 minutes now. Better get moving.  
He found his siblings in no short order; he knew where they would be after all. The medical room was open, the voices within where soft. Luthor knew he only had to enter that room, round up his siblings, and get them up to the table, they were all in there, it would be fine, they would know they had to obey, it was the only way to keep their father, well it was the only option.  
7 minutes now. He had to get a move on, if only his feet felt less heavy.  
Go in strong, do not allow any option for disobedience. Like father did, control the room and all within.  
Luthor felt his feet move and he moved through the doors, he didn’t clear his voice, father never had to after all.  
‘Umbrella academy! Its time for’ Luthor was then interrupted by many Shhhhhh’s.  
The wind went out of his sails, he knew it. They would not listen to him and know they would all be punished for it, because he failed.   
But he also got his first look at the baby, and Alison who was holding him.  
And, oh, that was a lot of feelings, too many feeling to have before breakfast really. Alison looked so happy, looking down to the tiny bundle in her arms. She looked like, she looked, she just looked alright. The feelings in his suddenly too tight chest resisted names and explanation. They were too big, and too strange.  
He knew it wasn’t their baby, it couldn’t be, but in his minds eye all of a sudden, their was a vision of something that could be, something that wasn’t as impossible as he had previously thought. It couldn’t be impossible; it was before his eyes after all. He was also deeply afraid, he, they were only 16 after all.   
But it wasn’t his or hers, the baby was Vanya’s. And that brought on even more feelings.  
He was sweating now he could feel it, he was also walking closer, although he didn’t remember deciding to do so.  
Vanya was just the ordinary one, nothing was supposed to happen to her, she was supposed to be safe at all times, kept away from the battles, the violence, the madness of all that the umbrella academy. But here she was, prone in the medical room. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Nothing here was right. Now to go along with a tight chest, he had a squirming stomach.   
He was closer now. He could see the baby’s tiny face. Number two and four where also grouped around, their voice were not loud enough to get over the blood pounding in his ears.  
The tiny face was a sweet one, long dark lashes where closed over round cheeks, soft tiny pink mouth was held a little open. There was a tuft of dark hair in as wisp on top of his head. He looked like a lot of other babies, Luthor assumed, he hadn’t seen many after all. He also looked like someone remarkably familiar to him.  
‘Ben?’ he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.  
On her medical bed, Vanya smiled up at him. She hadn’t smiled at him for a long time. He was taken aback a little, she looked so happy there on that bed, happy to in the medical room, where she should never be.  
When Vanya spoke though her smile, it was a different kind of voice, she spoke louder and with confidence than she had ever spoke to him or anybody else before, she still wasn’t looking any of them in the eye, but that was because they were fixed on the baby. Her baby.  
‘You see guys, Luthor knows it too, its Ben! He came back. Isn’t it wonderful?’  
What? What did she mean by Ben coming back, he was dead, Luthor had been with him when he had…well Luthor had been there, he had seen. Ben was dead.  
At this the rest of the siblings turned their eyes on each other, although Four’ where shifty. They said nothing. Luthor said nothing, the happy babble that was in the room before Luthor entered faded away. He should be angry, Vanya knew nothing about how Ben had been killed, she shouldn’t be talking about things she didn’t understand.   
But she also sounded so certain, so clear in her mind that this Baby was Ben, Luthor found he couldn’t find it in himself to be angry. Instead he felt pity, pity for his sister believing something so imposable. Ben was gone. Luthor was lost in his own thoughts, most likely so where his siblings. They kept quiet. What could they say to that after all in face of such confidence in impossibility?  
Until Vanya spoke again, her face falling at the lack of reinforcement from Luthor, from the lack of understand or believe in the faces of her siblings. She spoke this time in a firmer tone. ‘Give me back baby Ben please Alison, you guys should head off anyway, its nearly time for breakfast.’   
The baby, Luthor could not bring himself to call him Ben, it couldn’t be Ben after all, it just couldn’t be, was passed between the sisters. After settling the baby in her arms Vanya spoke again, this time in that more familiar soft tones, ‘thank you for coming to visit us everyone, and for the lovely teddy Klaus, very thoughtful.’ This was also a clear dismissal.  
As he was leaving Luthor saw the teddy lying next to Vanya on the bed, a mismatched poorly made thing made of brightly coloured scraps of fabric and buttons clearly ripped form an umbrella uniform for eye, the ears where 2 vastly different sizes. It was a bright mark on those white sheets. It was the image that stayed with Luthor as he followed his siblings out of the medical room, though the winding halls of the cold house, up to the dining room.  
It was 1-minute past 7 now, he, and they were late.  
It didn’t matter though; Father wasn’t there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> luthor was not as hard to write as I feared he would be. So that was nice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter I use unhelpful language about mental health and talk about negative body image after a traumatic birth. I felt like this was accurate to the characters, the time, and the situation they find themselves in. Please do not put yourself though any triggering because of a fan fiction.

Babies are cute, ridiculously cute, even new-borns with their red squishy faces and too big skin, have their charms. This is for the best really, as babies are also kind of gross, hard work and completely self-centred.  
All this Vanya learned in her first few days with her new baby. Diaper changing were a constant battle, and when he wasn’t dirty, he seemed to be hungry, when he wasn’t hungry, he was asleep, although for only what felt about 15 minutes at a time. She was tried, and although she was showering as often as she normally did, she still felt a bit grody all the time. And there was no way around it, her downstairs was sore as hell, she hadn’t really stopped bleeding yet, just spotting now. Mom said this was normal and had ordered and given her a soft doughnut cushion to sit on. Her breast seemed to have a mind of their own now, sometimes hard and achy, other times leaking at he drop of a hat, it was a lot, that’s all she was saying.  
Her stomach however, was a ruin of itself, the skin pulled so taut and thin so recently, that now it was empty the angry red skin stretched and sagged, long wide scars ran the length of the lower torso. She tried not to look at herself in mirrors or down at herself in general, at first Mom had wrapped her up in treated bandages, but after a few days she had ordered a special pare of shorts, they were elasticated and came up all the way to the bottom of her bra, they also had a hole in the crotch with made her feel very vulnerable.   
But she put on her big girl panties, literally, pulled them on over the top of the shorts. The shorts tucked all the suddenly weak and fragile skin in tidily away, sometimes it was all Vanya could do to force her self out of them to shower or apply the medical lotion to her repellent skin, she didn’t want to touch it, she didn’t want to see it. It was an personal crisis that was endured after dinner every evening.  
But all the pain both mental and physical, the wretched tiredness, endless leaking, and inconvenience wasn’t that big of a deal, because she wasn’t lonely.   
The one feeling that had dominated her whole life up to this point was loneliness, feeling like an outsider in a cold busy house. Playing violin in her room while the others went on missions or trained or hung out without her. But now, that had all changed. She had her little baby, and in the short minutes he was awake he was delightful enough to make up for a million dirty diapers. His bright dark eyes peering so hard at her face, his hands closing over her finger, his soft hair under her hand, the way his skin smelled. All these things and more, her baby boy, little Benny.  
She was his world, and he was hers.  
Mom had moved them to a new room, away from the other bedrooms, and on the opposite side of the house to her fathers’ room. Mom had said that this room had been one of the nursers when the children had first come to the academy. It was a much bigger room, and after the dust covers had been removed, the rooms deep cleaned, and bed sheets found Vanya and Ben had been set up within their new lodgings. The window faced the morning sun, the ceilings where tall and the walls could not be both touched at the same time by stretching out her arms, so it was a vast improvement on her old room.   
It was also the room in which her siblings came to visit too. Alison and Klaus being the most regular, Ben close after, and Diego and Luther visiting the least. But they all came to see her, and Ben and she loved it. She didn’t have time to feel lonely very often.  
She knew that really, they were here to see baby Ben, he was the cutest thing that had ever happened to mankind, getting cuter everyday really. After all everybody loves a baby, so of course her siblings wanted to come and see/cuddle him. But they had to see her when they came to see him, and his presence made everybody quieter and calmer, it was so pleasant to speak with her siblings when they were like that. They had a shared interest in baby Benny, his changes, his likes and fears, they didn’t have to speak only of the lessons that they only half shared, she didn’t have try and stretch the conversation or anything.  
She wasn’t aware of it at the time, but the reduced intake of her pills helped this social interacting. Her mother was in control of her and the babies post-natal care, she couldn’t stop the pills entirely, her programming insisted that Vanya had to take her medicine, but Vanya was breast feeding after all. The medicine was reduced by half. Sir Reginald was technically told about this, it was in the post-natal report, but everything was so normal, so average, with Vanya at least that Sir Reginald dismisses the whole report after the 4th page of the Vanya section and had moved on to the baby part of the report, it was just before a very important meeting after all, he didn’t have the time to waste on the useless number 7. And then later when he had gone to his meeting, Grace had tidied his office.  
She also knew they didn’t really believe her about baby Ben being Ben come back to them. But they would come round, as Ben got bigger it became clearer to them, Vanya was patient, she could wait.  
In the meantime, she had time and space, Mom brought her sustenance, her sibling bought her compony and her baby brought her joy. It wasn’t perfect, but everything was good.

Everything was not good; in fact, the situation was driving him mad.   
Ben didn’t need sleep any more, but he still felt tried, food was a similar situation, he couldn’t read unless Klaus turned the pages, there was no way to relax, but also no real pressure any more.   
He was dead didn’t that mean he could chill out? Because mostly he felt anxiety, worrying about Klaus and his drug habits, concern about Diego’s late-night lone outings, fretting about Luthor and Alison getting caught by father and all that drama that would cause. And if things were all going ok? Why not worry about wherever 5 had ended up and how he was doing or if he was even alive. Sounds like a plan!  
He knew that really these where habits left over from when he was alive, but now there was no way to try to help alleviate these worries. He couldn’t check on or warn his siblings, he couldn’t read old familiar books or eat Moms cookies straight out of the oven.  
There was extraordinarily little he could do really, so he fretted and dwelled on past mistakes. He was staring to understand why most of the other ghosts he had seen were constantly screaming.  
And now all of this, Vanya, who he had never had to worry about before, was now a mother, far too young and small to be so, and there was a baby who was probably his own reincarnation being so small and fragile. Just existing in this horrible world, in the same house as the monster that called himself their father.  
Ben was trying his best he really was, but he could feel what was left of his sanity unwinding. He was dead he knew this. But now, oh now he knew he was being observed by big brown eyes, they same eyes in his own face, they even had the little green flecks near the pupil he had always liked but no one else had ever noticed. It didn’t seem to bother the baby that he was dead, didn’t stop him from staring up at him.  
Vanya herself was asleep, understandably being 3 in the morning, and little Ben and Ben were staring at each other. Ben knew that baby Ben was looking at him, when he moved his head the baby’s eyes followed his own.  
He was leant over the crib, and his body and mind were desperate for reassurance, his body knew how to get it, he reached out a finger and moved to touch the soft round cheek, the first time he had tried to touch him. Ben had stopped to trying to touch things quickly after coming back as a ghost, the disappointment got bad fast, but sometimes it got to be too much not to at least try, this was one of those times, although he already felt foolish for hoping.  
He wasn’t as surprised to feel the soft cheek under his finger as he should be though, everything about this situation threw him out of the loop, so no he wasn’t surprised, but the feeling that lit up in him like a stripy birthday candle was warm and bright.   
Still feeling a crazy, but maybe a bit happy too.   
Baby Ben was too young to smile, but he nuzzled into the touch.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my longest chapter yet, also very unspell checked, so sorry for that.   
> but on the plus side, things acctuly happen in this one, rather than just feelings.

It was just so much easier not to tell people things, to keep them laughing and dismissive. Particularly with such difficult things as harsh unavoidable truths, secret siblings or heaven forfend feelings.  
But now 10 days after Vanya’s baby explosion Klaus was having a real struggle on the not having to talk about real shit, real actual important stuff, with his siblings. The fact that he had run out of the harder stuff in his stash didn’t help. Or it being the crack of dawn or a million other factors in the shit storm of his life.  
Like now for example, Ben, his Ben, Ghost Ben, was trying to speak with him, it looked kinda important judging by Bens eyebrows at least, but he couldn’t make out what he was saying due to the screaming pair of blood and gore covered women who were sharing the bathroom with him. It was making it hard to not gag around his toothbrush.  
His hands were shaking, his head was filled with spiders made of needles, and he knew just the thing that could make it stop. Pity was that his regular guy for such things had been missing from his regular corner booth in the local Irish pub for a while now.  
More the pity that the guy he managed to find in the local laundromat get the harder stuff off fobbed him off with coke so cut with baking soda that it was more use in the kitchen then up his nose. So yeah, he wasn’t doing to great, he still had his weed and some uppers, but it wasn’t really cutting it right now.  
As Klaus spat out his tooth paste into the sink, he tried to remind himself that the spilled guts that spread around the bathroom and even into the sink where not real, the slime that appeared to move down the drain with the white toothpaste wasn’t really there in any way that counted.  
His fears where unfounded, not based on anything that could do him any harm. He was being foolish.  
Shockingly enough his father’s advice continued to be deeply unhelpful.  
As he moved out of the bathroom, the last to use it that morning, he began to be able to hear Ben a little better. He did his best, or at least his middle to listen to what his dear departed brother was trying to force into his poor defenceless ears.  
‘…touch…’an old man screaming weeping at the corner of the hall, hmm try again. ‘he, like, cuddled into my hand Klaus, it was…’ Klaus had to move away from his brother for a second here to move around the hanging form, so faded and flickering to no longer make much noise, but still upsetting to look at.  
He made it to the breakfast table just in time, and as usually Ben hung back from that long bastard bit of furniture. As he recalled Ben hated eating at that table in life, hated eating in front of anybody really. Klaus had never seen him get much closer than 10 feet now that he was dead.  
Klaus made a promise to himself to listen to his brothers news later on today, maybe in the school room, the only regular ghost in that room was quite enough, the strangled woman in their couldn’t make much more than grunting whimpers. It would be quite enough to talk then.  
Yes, talk later, breakfast now. Maybe it would help with the headache, shaky hands, and complete inability to focus on anything for longer than 8 seconds too. So yeah breakfast time!  
Or soon at least, no sign of dear old Dad yet, they had one more minute before the clock struck the hour and they could begin eating without him. The old bastard hadn’t made it to the vast majority of the meals of late, he still made time for their training, of course, but meals where taken up in his office.  
A lovely perk of the crazy times brought on by Vanya’s sudden baby making.  
There, 7 on the dot, and we are in for another Dad free meal. As he and his siblings dug into the dull but lovingly prepared whole wheat toast and oatmeal with dried fruit only Luther looked disappointed by their father’s absence. Poor boy still thought he could please the rotten old fuck. Ah well not his problem, he’ll have to figure out that impossible dream was dead on his own, just like the rest of them had.  
Mmmm nutritional mush was much nicer covered in brown sugar. Most things probably were better covered in brown sugar really. Klaus’s breakfasty musing were then politely interrupted by a cough by the door.  
There stood Pogo, and when he had all the children’s attention he spoke in his refined dulcet tones, the same tones that had so often lulled Klaus to sleep during many a classroom lecture.  
‘Good morning children, I have some alterations to your training regime for the next short while.’  
Oh ho ho, do go on my dear Ape, Klaus would of said had his mouth not been so full of overly sweetened oats. The others around the table made enough noises of interest around their own breakfast foods to have Pogo continue.  
‘ Your father has gone on an expedition for at least 2 weeks , perhaps longer, and has left the continuation of your training in my hands, as I have also your scholastic lessons to consider their will be several alterations to the schedule.’  
Fucken yes! Pogo was a way softer touch that daddy dearest! Hardly any trauma at all really, hot damn!  
Oh wait he was still talking…’there will be longer lunch break to account for my own needs, and personal one on one training will still be on going, but the focus will switch to endurance or fine control over searching for new uses for you gifts, also general shared training will be cut by an hour on week days and cancelled altogether on weekends to focus more on individual practicing or catch up with scholastic pursuits. ‘  
Klaus swallowed his oatmeal finally, to whoop loudly, a wordless shout of joy that had a clear meaning. Freedom!  
Pogo’s eyebrows where nothing on fathers, but Klaus still took the hint and sat down in his chair.  
Happiness now collided with his coming down/sobering up, it was like he had fizzy champagne in his brain. He had so much more time now, more time to get out into the wider world, see people, maybe even get out to the clubs, and most importantly find a new source for drugs!  
Klaus smiled around his oatmeal now and was so lost in his dreams of various narcotic delights that he hadn’t noticed the sudden determined look in his dearly departed brethren’s eyes.  
Right then, Klaus would be no help. Ben knew that his brother could take thing seriously sometimes, but right now he was coming down hard. Klaus had attention problems at the best of times, but right now, with his pupils the size of pinhead, pale sweety skin and shaking all over there was no way he was going to get him to listen.   
Klaus had listened before, when Ben had tried to explain the connection he felt with his new baby self, the way he just knew that it was himself come again, about how the baby had the same seem along his torso so light as to be invisible, but there, it was there! Klaus had listened to him then, but he hadn’t believed him. Not really, he had nodded along with Ben’s grabbled explanations around the noise of the other ghosts and had humoured him.  
Ben had been furious then, was it so unbelievable that Vanya had some power, some way that had brought him back to the world. They were a group of siblings who among them had the power to lift a car over their head, cause a heart attack with words, so many strange sights, not including himself to that list. He was a walking hole in reality for god’s sake, the horrors were proof enough of the strangeness of the world, surely?  
It took a few hours, but Ben came to the conclusions that calmed him down.  
Ben’s death was so recent, it felt less then real to Ben most of the time, but too his siblings it was very real and very new, perhaps Klaus couldn’t bring himself to believe it because Ben’s ghostly self was so present, how could he be reborn if he was standing in front of him, in a manner of speaking.  
On the other hand, why would the others believe Vanya? She was so normal, ordinary, she wasn’t capable of the gifts or curses of the others. If it weren’t for the connection that he felt with the baby, and his own ability to touch him when he could touch nothing else, he wouldn’t have believed it.  
It was a funny thing really; he had seen what happened to Vanya, had been in the room, had seen the blood and rapid change in her body and the aftermath of it all.  
He knew it was an incredible thing, she had not been pregnant, then she was, then there was a baby. It was incredible, amazing. But Vanya had done it, so it must just be a normal thing right? It was like there was this solid truth in his mind, Vanya was ordinary, anything she did was a normal, average human thing. Nothing special, nothing at all.  
But that wasn’t true was it, he had been there, he had seen it. And yet, and yet.  
Ben felt his head hurt then, something he didn’t think was possible for a dead guy.  
But that was then, and this was now. He knew now that he could touch the baby, so now he just needed to show Klaus that he could.  
It took 2 days.  
2 useless days of Klaus being a completely self-destruction machine.  
He had followed his brother and his collection of screaming ghosts around the town. He hadn’t tried to tell him the news again, it would be easier just to show him after all, seeing is believing after all.  
He had watched Klaus barely do training, had watched him sneak out to many a club, had watched him joyfully find a new dealer in the 3rd club and finally, had watched him get off his tiny tits to the bounding rhythms of shitty Euro pop.  
Riveting.  
But now, after so long, it was Saturday and the siblings new free time had finally meant that it was time for Klaus to visit his little sister and new lil cuddle buggy, Klaus’s words not his. Ben was the only ghost around Klaus now, the cocktail of drugs in his system had seen to that.  
The stars were right, it was showtime.  
Alison was deeply enjoying her cuddle time, little baby Ben was all warm, soft, and small, his head smelled just so good in some deeply primal way, it sure did tickle the inner cave woman brain. Holding on to his little body, head under her nose, close to her body was just the best source of the endorphins around.   
Vanya was moving gently though the room, putting the diaper changing things back in their rightful place, getting new couple of outfits together in case of sudden need for them.  
It was peaceful, charming domestic and was something to be basked in like a hot house plat in spring sunshine.  
This was of course interrupted by the chaotic flamboyance that was Klaus.  
‘Dear sisters! How lovely to see you both this fine day, and how’s my little cuddle bunny?’  
The last explosion of speech was accompanied by a fluttering toward the cuddle bunny in question, with kisses and hair stroking in swift succession.   
Alison would be more annoyed, but Klaus was in such a sparkling mood it was hard to keep the smile of her face, he had been in such a slump recently, understandably really, he had been so close to Ben after all. But little baby Ben was a light for them all, despite Vanya’s odd ideas about him being a reincarnation.  
Everybody delt with grief differently after all, and she had stopped talking about it pretty quickly when it became clear that none of her siblings were sharing in that nonsense. Alison herself felt like she was doing alright, all things considered, better than most of her siblings that was for sure.  
For the next 20 minutes there was baby swapping to cuddle share, there was cooing and general nice sibling/nephew bounding. Until Vanya decreed that it was time for Ben to be un-swaddled and to have a kick around.  
The little mothers’ words were regretfully and petulantly obeyed, and the baby placed on the squishy mat. Big Mom came in about the same time with some tea and cookies and the afternoon was just made all the better. It was just delightful, no extra training, cookies, her siblings were getting on beautifully and Alison was riding high on baby endorphins. A better afternoon she could not remember.  
And wasn’t it just like a brother to ruin it.   
Klaus had begun twitching a little while ago, his eyes moving just past the baby on the mat. Alison was beginning to believe that it was Klaus getting over the loss of a brother but rather Klaus finding more drugs to take, and now he was coming down. Alison felt her mood sour, but she was determined not to upset Vanya, who looked so happy, smiling at the siblings around her delicate teacup.  
What was she going to do? Could she get rid of him without Vanya noticing? As Alison bean to plot, she was interrupted by a gasp from her sister.  
And there, in the middle of their chairs, all surrounding was little baby Ben. No longer wiggling on his comfy cloth mat, but instead being held by her recently passed brother, he was sitting cross legged holding his new name sake safe in the crook of his arms. He wasn’t looking at them, he was looking down at the baby, smiling, and he was also outlined with a blue glow.  
This was apparently too much for Klaus, who fainted, falling to the ground like a folding chair, first his head, then neck, bending at the waist, knees and his ankles being last. His head made a hollow thunk on the ground.   
It was funny what you noticed at times like this really. But she didn’t move to help him.  
Alison was sitting stiffly, her body so tense as to be painful. She couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away from the scene in front of her. Her voice had failed her too, it seemed like she was stuck in her own body, frozen, all her training was not rising to the occasion, what should she do? She hoped Vanya was alright, surly the shock would be too much for ordinary little Vanya, but…  
‘Oh hello Ben, its good to see you.’ She heard Vanya’s quite little voice say.  
Ben’s face tilted up towards Vanya, and his face was as shocked as Alison’s own.


	9. Chapter 9

Vanya was feeling a lot of things right now, a thick soup of confusion, disbelieve and all thing similar. But mostly she was happy to see Ben again.  
Her brother had been gone for over a fortnight now and she had missed him in that time, yes she had been comforted by the baby version of Ben that had come back to them all, but it wasn’t the same.  
Baby Ben hadn’t read the books that they both loved, Benny couldn’t smile at her over a too quiet dinner table, couldn’t really do much more than eat and sleep really. Baby Ben wasn’t the same as Ben coming back from the dead, he was a reincarnation a second chance, a way to try again. But now, here and now she could see and hear her brother as he was that day, that awful day they had left the house on that dreadful mission.  
So, Vanya, in record time had decided on the emotion she was going to be focusing on, fear and confusion could wait until her siblings had gotten themselves together, or at the very least conscience.  
‘Oh hello Ben, it’s good to see you.’ Vanya often wished she could bring herself to speak in a louder confident tone, she wished it now too. Oh well, timid whispering would have to do.  
She expected a smile from the older Ben’s face as he looked at her, instead he looked utterly confused and almost terrified.  
Since she was expecting a smile from her brother maybe he needed some encouragement? Vanya did her best to let her happiness at his return fill her face, she wasn’t good at letting her feelings be known on her face, she would have to practise to make sure that her little one wouldn’t grow up so stunted as she found herself.  
The smile was still a nice one though, had to be, because Ben was starting smile back, like ink over a watered page, a look of shock was beginning to turn to delight. As Ben began to speak it was around that smile.  
‘You can see me Vanya?’ his voice had a strange quality to it, sounding as if it came from both far away and right by your ear, but also though a thin film of rippling water. But it was still unmistakeably Ben’s voice, the voice that had spent hours talking about classics, and not so classic books with her, had whispered happy birthdays and thousand other things to her over the years, it was almost too good to hear that voice.  
‘Yes Ben, we can see you.’ Apparently, Alison had found her voice again, although she was still sitting so stiffly as to be made from wood.  
Bens head turned then too their shared sister and then looking a little to the left also took in the crumpled sight that was Klaus. He sighed at the sight of Klaus, and it was such a familiar and welcome sound that it caused Vanya to laugh at the silliness of it all. As her siblings turned to look at her in shock, she felty the need to explain herself. It was difficult around the giggles.  
‘it’s, just you know’ laughter ‘Klaus…he can see ghosts, and now’ giggles ‘when he is all fainted over… we can see Ben.’ The little gasps of giggling and laughter must have been funny too, Alison was laughing now too, relaxing finally in her chair, even the Ghostly figure of Ben was hunching over the little Ben in his arms and letting out soft hoots of laughter.  
Vanya held back no longer and though her laughter she slid down off of her chair and walked on her knees over to her Ben’s and when she was close enough, took them both into her arms, as much of them as she could, and hugged them close.

******************

Klaus was not new to regaining consciousness on floors, both in his training and in his more privet pursuits.  
That’s not to say it wasn’t as unpleasant, it was never great to wake up with a sour head, but at least there wasn’t a stickiness to this floor, and the sounds that hit his ear was giggles and chortles rather than father cruel voice or even pounding techno.  
Gigging?  
Klaus carefully opened one of his eyes, the right one, and took in the sights.  
There was Vanya and Alison, a perfectly normal expected thing to look at, the fact that they were both kneeling on the floor laugh crying together, a bit more unusual sight, but not crazy. Then there was Ben, his dead brother that usually only he could only see being hugged close between his two sisters, while the aforementioned dead brother was holding his new-born namesake in his arms.  
Ghosts couldn’t touch things, Klaus knew this, he remembered the hours of stressful training, of trauma and torture dear old dad had put him though to try and make the ghosts around him tangible. Cold dark rooms, electrodes, cocktails of not fun drugs and all sorts of more forgettable or at least more mentally burialable so called experimentation. So, Klaus knew, down to his boots, that ghosts could not touch things.  
But here they were, three of his siblings, one definitely dead, judging by and by the blue tinge to Ben, hugging and laughing and/or crying. Absolutely touching each other, Ben was for sure holding the baby, no way round it, this was happening.  
Maybe he was still high? Yeah that could be it, his dealer was still new to him, might have laced his stuff with hallucinogens, for reasons beyond his ken.  
There were reasons Klaus avoided hallucinogenic, exceptionally good reasons, he saw enough things as it was, he didn’t need any more bullshit in front of his eyeballs or whispered or screamed in his ears.  
But it could be the drugs.  
He couldn’t decide if he wanted it to be real or not, it was all too much.   
Maybe he could go back to fainting, yeah that was a good plan, let’s go with that.  
But cruel fate dressed as sweet Vanya interrupted this loft goal of returning to blissful, non-confusing unconsciousness.  
‘Klaus! Your awake, are you all right?’  
Dang, ah well, the show must go on. Let’s try to find out how real this is first, then we can decide how conscience to be.  
‘oh, hello dear sisters, I’m just fine, just an unexpected non-voluntary nap, happens to us all, how are we all doing?’  
His sister where looking at him with concern, which wasn’t ideal.  
And then Ben spoke at him, his voice sounded different, there was wavering and a funny reverb.  
‘Hey Klaus, look what I can do, both hands.’ It was a terrible joke, barely a joke at all really, but everything was so strange, so stupid, it made both Allison and Klaus smile a little, and Vanya out right laughed.  
Klaus hadn’t really heard Vanya laugh for a long time, and now, seeing her laugh twice in one sitting was just delightful, Klaus found himself laughing too, and then Alison joined in and Ben hadn’t really stopped since the first round. Yes, it was more manic laughter than was normal, but in these cold rooms, in the bastard house it was more laughter than had been seen for a while.  
Vanya opened her arms to Klaus, and he went to them, moving on hands and knees, still laughing and maybe crying a bit too towards the embrace of his similarly hysterical siblings, as he was folded in to the cuddle puddle. He felt the solid arms of his sister, and the vaguely fizzy arms of his brother, and he knew it too be real, almost too real. And all he could do was laugh though soft tears.


	10. Chapter 10

Vanya couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed, let alone laughed to the point of pain, this dizzying, lightheaded, wheezing wonderful pain. Vanya was laughing with her siblings, not all of them, but it was just such a miraculous feeling. It was sunshine in her stomach, it was warm cookies, it was its own wonderful feeling, and it was almost too much.  
The room felt warmer and lighter because of it, like it was sunny day, instead of rain.  
But apparently the crowding and strange noises had gotten too much for baby Benny, and he began to cry, worried little whimpers warbling like a tiny bird.  
Vanya backed up a bit from her siblings, and they all moved along with her, like the petals on a daisy at dawn. Leaving the Bens in the middle of the group, all eyes on them both. The laughter died away, which was a shame, but it was wasn’t at the same time. Her sides were hurting, her cheeks too, she felt a bit like she had hit hard on the head. That much happiness, all in one hit, it was too much really.  
There would be talking now probably, and that was always something her siblings {her-self included} managed to turn into either shouting or sullenness.  
Maybe she could try to stop that unpleasantness, she had made them all laugh after all, anything felt like it was possible at the moment. Laughter born confidence had filled her, she could do this, in fact she must do this. But what to ask Ben, how to gain understanding without arguments appearing?   
At least Diego wasn’t here, that would help.  
\---------------------------------------------------------

Ben was holding his nephew/self, he was surrounded by family, he was being seen and listened too.  
He was euphoric, he was confused, and he had absolutely no idea how this was happening.   
So, he began to ask questions, it seemed only sensible. ‘Klaus how are you doing this?’ his voice sounded so strange, even to himself.  
Klaus put one of his hands to his chest, and in characteristic style began his denials. ‘I don’t know a damn thing dearest brother. You are here, not quite in the flesh, and you can touch things and who knows what else. I don’t have a fucking clue as the how.’  
As about as helpful as expected.  
Ben found himself turning to his sisters next, eyes flicking between them.  
Perhaps it was her ranking amongst the high numbers, but Alison squared her shoulders and took the mantle of leadership, her voice was projected just like their father had taught her. ‘right, well I don’t know how this is happening, but it is. Now all we can do is decide what we are going to do about it.’  
Vanya spoke up too, ‘are you back all the time Ben, or just while you are touching little Benny?’ a very good question, one he wasn’t looking forward to answering. It felt so good to be heard, seen, and touched. But he did need to know, they all did.  
But how did Vanya figure out the connection between the 2 Bens? Did she feel the way he felt? See and understand it. She must do. Had too.  
The next half an hour were filled with experimentation, they move Klaus away, Ben stayed present, they moved Baby Ben away, and Ghost Ben vanished from sight, although Klaus assured them that he was still there. They tried with one hand, one finger, all that seemed to matter was that the Ben’s had physical contact with one another. When the 2 Ben’s touched, their dead brother could inhabit the world again. Yes, he was blue and a bit wavy, but he was here. And he was a physical being too, he could catch a ball thrown at him, and throw it back harder at Klaus for throwing things at him unexpectedly while he was holding a baby.  
They had not asked about the horror, and Ben was very grateful for that, he had never discussed the horror with his siblings, tried not to let them see it if he could help it.  
The only one who knew much about the horror was their father, even Ben didn’t know much about the nightmare that had a home in his body.  
Ben had stopped speaking then, his siblings hadn’t really noticed. They were talking about their other siblings. Diego and Luther. About trust and the invertibility of discovery.  
But ben wasn’t really listing, he was staring at his born-again body, he had one hand cradling and one hand resting on the baby’s stomach. There was no opening there now, but one day there would be. An opening to a space full of nightmares, a place that Ben knew nothing about, and that ignorance was no longer an option.  
His father had kept the information from Ben in his lifetime, and it had led to his death, he was sure of it. This was awful yes, but after you died, you found that the worst had happened, you had a choice to stay mad at everything abut be unable to avenge yourself or to move on. And Ben had felt at the time at least that there was enough blood on his hands.  
But now, there was a new Ben, a new bright shiny baby who could not be allowed to suffer the same fate as himself had. He’d have to get a hold of everything his father knew about the horror and find a way to protect his nephew from the beasts inside him. It was the only way.  
But he would need help.  
He looked at his siblings, Vanya was sitting quietly, hands shaking noticeably watching Klaus and Alison fight about whether Luthor was trustworthy or a suck up daddy’s bitch boy, Klaus’s words not his. Alison had her hands on her hips, standing and whisper yelling at Klaus who was flapping and speaking a bit too loudly in a whiner voice than he normal did.   
They were argumentative, petty and convinced of their own rightness, they were beaten down to the point of shaking at the sounds of raised voiced, they were 16 and so sheltered from the world as to be almost helpless out in it, they had seen as much violence and blood as a war veteran. They were his siblings, and they were all he had.  
They would have to do; he had no other choices.  
He would do whatever he had to do to protect this baby, and while he looked on at his fighting siblings, he caught Vanya’ s eye and held it, trying to get across to his sister this determination, and when she nodded at him, he knew she had understood.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------

Vanya didn’t understand.  
She didn’t understand why Alison and Klaus were arguing. Of course they would have to tell there siblings about Ben, he was there brother returned from the dead, they couldn’t keep that from them.  
And of course, they would have to keep it from their father, and to a lesser extent mother and Pogo. Father could not be trusted not to try and weaponizing the Ben’s combined gifts. To hurt them, so he was not an option. Mom might have no choice but to tell father and Pogo was her father’s creature no matter how much both might love the children in their care, they couldn’t be trusted.  
That was a shame, Mom was an immensely helpful.  
She also didn’t understand what Ben the ghostly was looking at her like that for. His eyebrows were raised but furrowed, and he was glancing at her and then the baby in turn. She was sure he was truing to say something with his eyes, but Vanya could not decipher it.  
But she knew she need to say something, Klaus and Alison were getting louder, they would soon draw attention. She had made sure that the camaras in the room had been blocked by room dividers early on in their inhabiting of it. Had their father been home it would have been changed immediately, but he wasn’t here now was he. There were microphones in the room though and they were sure to trigger if the argument got any louder.   
Best not to shout though.   
The teapot.  
As Vanya gently pushed the tea pot to its early demise, she knew what she had to say.  
The crash of the teapot was loud enough to stop the argument, but also loud enough to be heard though the rest of the house. Mom would be coming soon. And the microphones would be listening.  
‘ok everyone, Mom will be on her way up, and its time for little Ben to have his lunch. Why don’t we have a get together tomorrow afternoon? We can invite Diego and Luthor along too.’  
Looking at the face of her brothers and sister she tried to look resolute although she didn’t feel it. She was doing what had to be done, for her son, for her family, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t scared of what was to come. It didn’t mean that her hands were steady when Ben handed over her baby and vanished, it didn’t mean that her eyes weren’t damp when her remaining siblings filed out of the room, with gentle questions of her certainty of her choice, but she nodded her head non the less, because yes she was scared, but she was sure.  
When Mom came by not a minute after her siblings had left with a dustpan and brush, she was feeding her son, her eyes were dry and her heartbeat steady.   
She would do what she needed to do, whatever it took to protect her family.


	11. Chapter 11

Chairs arranged in a little circle, end tables dotted around them, there was soft cushions, little blankets, soft lighting coming in from the window, note paper and pencils.  
Hot tea in a full formal set, the homey cream one, warm cookies, small sticky cakes and even a cheese platter with all sorts of savoury goodness sat in pride of place on an end table of its own. All strategically arranged. Soft classical music was playing near the closet microphone to the table set up. There were battle fields less thought out then this tea time luncheon. This wouldn’t spot the recordings if things got loud, but it would help, surly the whole set up would help, who could argue in a place like this after all?  
Enter Diego stage right, pursued by Luthor.  
He hadn’t meant for this argument to happen, he had just been walking to his sisters room, happy enough that there had been a promise of cookies and not at all an opportunity to see and maybe even get a hug or two from his tiny nephew.  
No, never that.  
He couldn’t even remember what Luthor had said now, some stupid shit about training, but it had since escalated to him having a problem with listing to orders, which he would do if the orders weren’t dumb as all fuck, which they always were when given by Luthor  
For example ‘…well I would have followed those men, sure yeah, if it wasn’t for the fact that they had already been trailed by Alison and were backed into a god damn corner.’  
Luthor was grumbling about chains of command, the logic of having good communication or some other bullshit, whatever. He smelt cookies, moms’ cookies were the best, they were the only kind of cookies that he had ever had, but whatever, they were still the best.  
Vanya was there, but it was her room after all, she had invited them. He didn’t really associate with his powerless quite sister, and she was aware enough, thankfully, to stay out his way. At least one of his siblings got it, shame it was the only one who didn’t matter.  
Still, she had cookies.  
‘Hello there, would you like to sit? I can get you both a cup of tea and maybe something to eat?’ his sisters voice was soft but not as quiet as he was used to hearing. He took the seat next to the cookies, Luthor took one on the opposite side of the room. Good, maybe that meant they could stop talking about stuff Luthor was wrong about.  
Or it could be that the cheese and other savoury stuff was over there.  
‘Would you mind holding on to little Ben for me please Diego? He’s just finished his lunch and been burped, so if you could try to keep him awake for a bit?’ Vanya held up the little man in question.   
‘Alright, give him over.’ He manged to keep his smile and stutter to himself.  
He was such a tiny little man, he looked more like a baby now though, his skin all plumb and face round, he was in a little legs and arms were bare and looking all squishy in his vest type thing. He couldn’t resist and a squeeze of the chubby little leg.   
He could hear Luthor and Vanya talking in the background, but little Ben was making tiny gasping noise when he squished his little legs and almost smiling, so he payed no attention.  
Klaus and Alison came in a bit after that. Vanya had given him his tea and it was easy enough to drink tea and eat cookies one handed. Easy enough to get along with his brothers and sisters if he wasn’t paying them any attention.  
Hell the least annoying part of the family, apart from Mom obviously, was in his sitting in his lap and still shit himself for god sake.  
Vanya was beginning to worry that she had laid out the room too well for calmness.  
Diego wasn’t paying any attention, and Luthor was paying too much attention to the cheese board. Alison and Klaus looked nervous and not immensely helpful or keen to start awkward conversations about the dead brother returning from the grave.  
Well maybe the conversation could be guided into a suitable conclusion before the big reveal, make the golden boy make a promise before he knew all the details. He might go for his siblings over father if we could make him promise something to Alison.  
She could only try. Cleared her throat, adjusted her shirt.  
Maybe not the whole room, just saying it to Luthor would be enough. Yeah.  
Going over to Luthor, Vanya brought the lemonade jug with her, to top up her brothers’ glass.  
Here goes everything. ‘I’m glad you’re enjoying the charcuterie board Luthor.’  
Luthor nods, his mouth is full.  
‘Well Luthor, although of course its lovely just to get together, I did bring you all here to show you something.’  
Luthor had apparently spotted chewing out of politeness, but perhaps it was too dry to swallow as he sat in silence cheeks bulging a little. This may be better for the conversation, Vanya wasn’t sure.  
Well better just go for it.  
‘its about Ben, I’m a little worried what Dad might try too find out about his powers, but he’s so young Luthor.’ Luthor managed an awkward nod. Good enough.  
‘I’ve found out something about his powers, its no big deal, just a small thing really, but you know Dad, he can be pushy about these things, I am going to tell him of course, I just want him to have a chance to grow up a little bit more.’ Oh dear those where some furrowed eyebrows. It was time for plan A.  
Vanya shoot a look to Alison and jerked her head at their biggest brother.  
Her eyebrows raised and she moved away from her conversation with Klaus, Vanya could see the moment that Alison turned on the charm, it started in the eyes and moved across the rest of her face like a flower opening, lips smiling, hair swinging, and spring in her steps. Vanya was in awe, when her sister had said she want to be in the movies she had her doubts, but damn it looks like fathers’ public relations lessons and Alison’s pure will was pulling though.  
Game on.  
‘its only a little thing, isn’t it Alison, Dad wouldn’t want to be bothered by it, would he?’  
In a voice like honey, Alison sealed the deal, ‘he’s only a tiny baby, and Dad cant stand babies anyways, best to keep it to ourselves for a bit isn’t it?’ Alison’s words were accompanied by her right-hand laying softly on Luthor’s shoulder, like a bird come down to roost. Vanya saw him finally swallow his cheesy mouthful. Vanya looked round their brother at Alison, they had him in a pincher motion, it was time for the crush.  
Vanya spoke up, but Luthor didn’t look away from Alison’s big brown eyes, perfect, ‘so we will just keep it between us wont we Luthor.’ Helpless nodding was her answer. Hmmmm, not enough, but it was Alison to the rescue again.  
In a breathy sigh Alison whispered the word ‘Promise?’  
He never stood a chance, he just said yes.

Klaus could feel the female wiles from here, the devilish women, how he longed to go and join them, but it appeared that he was going to be the one to bring dear Diego into the fold.  
At least he wouldn’t have to convince him not to go running of to tell daddy dearest. Not that anybody could right now, but that was beside the point. Diego wasn’t likely to talk to dad, he hadn’t done so voluntarily in several years come to think of it. So, Team protect the Bennies had that going for them.  
But the time had come to consider his approach to Diego, subtle hints wasn’t something that either of them were great at, and just showing him may lead to loudness…what to do, what to do.  
Ah well, as dearly departed Ben never said, go with your gut.  
As he slouched on to the chair next to Diego, he was roundly ignored, shocking. Well time to be shocking back. En-garde.  
‘So, Vanya’s found out the little guys powers already.’ There take that.  
‘No way’ oh the flat denial from Diego, a fine if predictable riposte from his opponent.  
‘Yes way, seen it myself, pretty interesting stuff.’ A balestra move of preparation, warming up now.  
All he got was a bind, in way of a snort of disbelief.  
Time to reprise, add a bit more legitimism to things, ‘Alison saw it all too. I believe they are over there making sure that number One over there doesn’t go running of to dear Papa when Vanya shows us the little man’s surprise.’  
Breaking ground now, Diego looked more surprised than disbelieving. But he said nothing.  
Klaus reached over to little Bens tiny hand, smiling as those soft little fingers did their best o close over his finger. ‘of course, we’d never have to worry about that with you, we know the old mans a bastard to the core.’ He didn’t look up at Diego, he looked down at Ben’s round surprisingly solemn face, and he went on. ‘ we wont let him hurt you, will we precious boy oh no, oh no we won’t.’  
It was a dirty foil but needs must.  
Oh good Vanya was coming over, he gave her a nod that he hoped looked reassuring and said ‘oh good, on with the show is it Vanya, I was just telling dear Diego here about it.’  
Vanya smiled but said nothing, which was an improvement on her normal not smiling and saying nothing.  
As she was passed her baby by Diego, she visibly steeled herself and began speaking to the room as a whole, you still had to strain your self to hear though, she hadn’t quite managed normal speaking voice yet.  
He wasn’t really listing to what she was saying, too busy looking at his brothers faces, dismissive, disbelieving, and downright mean faces at times though out Vanya’s obviously prewritten and memorised little speech.   
Oh, how those faces chanced when she held out baby ben at her full arm extension and ghost Ben martialized out of thin air and took hold of his tiny name sake.  
Touché to Vanya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took soo long to write, aslo Child Diago is a butt, but then most of the umbrella kids are.  
> also i no nothing about fenceing, but Klaus does so here is the explinations of his terms
> 
> REPRISE  
> the renewal of an action made with a lunge by first returning to guard forwards or backwards
> 
> BALESTRA  
> a short, sharp jump forwards; usually used as a preparation.
> 
> BREAKING GROUND  
> stepping back
> 
> Touché  
> Used to acknowledge a hit in fencing

**Author's Note:**

> This is my frist fan fic, so if there is critizism please give it in gentle hiku to soften the blow.  
> also Im super dxlexic so if any spelling mistakes please let me know.  
> More to follow.


End file.
